7 Most Fascinating Underwater Ruins

8/7/2019 7 Most Fascinating Underwater Ruins

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7 Most Fascinating Underwater RuinsPublished on 6/3/2009 under Cool Places - by Gracie Murano - 183,869 views

Cleopatra's Palace in Alexandria (Egypt)

Off the shores of Alexandria, the city of Alexander the Great, lies what is believed to bethe ruins of the royal quarters of Cleopatra. A team of marine archaeologists led byFrenchman Franck Goddio made excavations on this ancient city from where Cleopatra,the last queen of the Ptolemies, ruled Egypt. Historians believe this site was submergedby earthquakes and tidal waves more than 1,600 years ago.

The excavations concentrated on the submerged island of Antirhodus. Cleopatra is saidto have had a palace there. Other discoveries include a well-preserved shipwreck andred granite columns with Greek inscriptions. Two statues were also found and were

lifted out of the harbour. One was a priest of the goddess Isis; the other a sphinx whoseface is said to represent Cleopatra's father, King Ptolemy XII. The artifacts were
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returned to their silent, because the Egyptian Government says it wants to leave most of them in place to create an underwater museum. (Link 1 | Link 2 )

World's Wickedest City, Port Royal (Jamaica)

One of the advantages of marine or nautical archeology is that, in many instances,catastrophic events send a ship or its cargo to the bottom, freezing a moment in time. Acatastrophe that has helped nautical archeologists was the earthquake that destroyed partof the city of Port Royal, Jamaica. Once known as the "Wickedest City on Earth" for itssheer concentration of pirates, prostitutes and rum, Port Royal is now famous for another reason: "It is the only sunk city in the New World," according to Donny L.Hamilton.

Port Royal began its watery journey to the Academy Awards of nautical archeology onthe morning of June 7, 1692, when, in a matter of minutes, a massive earthquake sentnearly 33 acres of the city -- buildings, streets, houses, and their contents and occupants-- careening into Kingston Harbor. Today, that underwater metropolis encompassesroughly 13 acres, at depths ranging from a few inches to 40 feet.

In 1981, the Nautical Archaeology Program of Texas A&M University, in cooperationwith the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and the Jamaica National HeritageTrust (JNHT), began underwater archaeological investigations of the submerged portionof the 17th-century town of Port Royal, Jamaica. Present evidence indicates that whilethe areas of Port Royal that lay along the edge of the harbor slid and jumbled as theysank, destroying most of the archaeological context, the area investigated by TAMU /INA, located some distance from the harbor, sank vertically, with minimal horizontaldisturbance.

In contrast to many archaeological sites, the investigation of Port Royal yielded much

more than simply trash and discarded items. An unusually large amount of perishable,organic artifacts were recovered, preserved in the oxygen-depleted underwater
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environment. Together with the vast treasury of complimentary historical documents,the underwater excavations of Port Royal have allowed for a detailed reconstruction of everyday life in an English colonial port city of the late 17th century. (Link 1 | Link 2 )

The submerged temples of Mahabalipuram (India)

According to popular belief, the famous Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram wasn't asingle temple, but the last of a series of seven temples, six of which had submerged.New finds suggest that there may be some truth to the story. A major discovery of submerged ruins was made in April of 2002 offshore of Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu,South India. The discovery, at depths of 5 to 7 meters (15 to 21 feet) was made by ajoint team from the Dorset based Scientific Exploration Society (SES) and marinearchaeologists from India's National Institute of Oceanography (NIO). Investigations ateach of the locations revealed stone masonry, remains of walls, square rock cut remains,scattered square and rectangular stone blocks and a big platform with steps leading to it.All these lay amidst the locally occurring geological formations of rocks.

Based on what at first sight appears to be a lion figure at location four, the ruins wereinferred to be part of a temple complex. The Pallava dynasty, which ruled the regionduring the 7th century AD, was known to have constructed many such rock-cut,structural temples in Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram.

The reasons for the submergence of the ruins are remain unclear. (Link 1 | Link 2 )
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8000-year-old Yonaguni-Jima (Japan)

Situated 68 miles beyond the east coast of Taiwan, Yonaguni Islands are a remarkableplace for its rugged and mountainous coastlines. The special attraction is the submergedruins located in the southern coast of Yonaguni: a superb 10050x25 meters man-madeartifact out of solid rock slabs stands erect at right angles. Its is estimated to be around


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8000 years old, which is remarkably early for the kind of technology that has been usedfor carving it. Different theories exist about the possible identities of this structure.

While some say these ruins are the remnants of the missing Continent of Mu, other archeologists attribute them to be the outcome of unexplained geological processes,

although, when you see the finely designed hallways and staircases, this naturalphenomenon' idea will appear sheer out of place.

The megalith was discovered quite accidentally by a sport diver in 1995 when he hadstrayed beyond the permissible limit off the Okinawa shore. The interesting thing aboutthis massive stone building is that it had arches made of beautifully fitted stone blocksbearing resemblance with the building architectural style of the Inca civilization.Debates were rife about the ruins being associated with the prehistoric Motherland of Civilization. Surveying the ruins minutely takes time and skill because of the roughoceanic currents. (Link | Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 )

Pavlopetri (Greece)
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The ancient town of Pavlopetri lies in three to four metres of water just off the coast of southern Laconia in Greece. The ruins date from at least 2800 BC through to intactbuildings, courtyards, streets, chamber tombs and some thirty-seven cist graves whichare thought to belong to the Mycenaean period (c.1680-1180 BC). This Bronze Agephase of Greece provides the historical setting for much Ancient Greek literature and

myth, including Homer's Age of Heroes.

Although Mycenaean power was largely based on their control of the sea, little isknown about the workings of the harbour towns of the period as archaeology to date hasfocused on the better known inland palaces and citadels. Pavlopetri was presumablyonce a thriving harbour town where the inhabitants conducted local and long distancetrade throughout the Mediterranean its sandy and well-protected bay would havebeen ideal for beaching Bronze Age ships. As such the site offers major new insightsinto the workings of Mycenaean society.

Underwater archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson, from The University of Nottingham, is thefirst archaeologist to have official access to the site in 40 years. Despite its potentialinternational importance no work has been carried out at the site since it was firstmapped in 1968 and Dr Henderson has had to get special permission from the Greek government to examine the submerged town. According to him, this site is of rareinternational archaeological importance. It is imperative that the fragile remains of thistown are accurately recorded and preserved before they are lost forever. (Link )

Dwarka Port (India)

Among the most exciting archaeological discoveries made in India in recent years arethose made off the coast of Dwarka and Bet Dwarka in Gujarat. Excavations have beengoing on since 1983. These two places are 30 km away from each other. Dwarka is onthe Arabian sea coast, and Bet Dwarka is in the Gulf of Kutch. Both these places areconnected with legends about the good Krishna and there are many temples here,mostly belonging to the medieval period.

Rated as one of the seven most ancient cities in the country, the legendary city of Dvaraka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna. It is believed that due to damage anddestruction by the sea, Dvaraka has submerged six times and modern day Dwarka is the7th such city to be built in the area.
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Archaeologists were keen to find out whether there were any older remains off the coastat these places. (Link 1 | Link 2 )

The Lost Villages (Canada)

"The Lost Villages" are ten communities in the Canadian province of Ontario, in theformer townships of Cornwall and Osnabruck (now South Stormont) near Cornwall,which were permanently submerged by the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in1958.

The flooding was expected and planned for. In the weeks and months leading up to theinundation, families and businesses in the affected communities were moved to the newplanned communities of Long Sault and Ingleside. These negotiations werecontroversial, however, as many residents of the communities felt that market valuecompensation was insufficient since the Seaway plan had already depressed propertyvalues in the region.

The town of Iroquois was also flooded, but was relocated 1.5 kilometres north rather than abandoned. Another community, Morrisburg, was partially submerged as well, butthe area to be flooded was moved to higher ground within the same townsite. A portionof the provincial Highway 2 in the area was flooded; the highway was rebuilt along aCanadian National Railway right-of-way in the area.
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At 8 a.m. on July 1, 1958, a large cofferdam was demolished, allowing the flooding tobegin. Four days later, all of the former townsites were fully underwater. Parts of theNew York shoreline were flooded by the project as well, but no communities were loston the American side of the river.

In some locations, a few remnants of sidewalks and building foundations can still beseen under the water, or even on the shoreline when water levels are sufficiently low.Some high points of land in the flooded area remained above water as islands, and areconnected by the Long Sault Parkway. Lock 21 of the former Cornwall Canal (sincereplaced by the Saint Lawrence Seaway) is a popular scuba diving site, a few feet fromthe shore along the Parkway. (Link )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Villageshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Villages

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7 Most Fascinating Underwater Ruins